


Ghosts of Our Past

by Salazar101



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Blood, M/M, Swearing, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-11
Updated: 2019-06-11
Packaged: 2020-04-24 13:09:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19173946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Salazar101/pseuds/Salazar101
Summary: Jack returns to Swiss HQ to try and find information... but there is a part of him that never left





	Ghosts of Our Past

**Author's Note:**

> This idea has been bouncing around in my head for a few weeks so I thought I'd release it into the world like a bird. It is not my problem anymore. Find me at tumblr on ohgodsalazarwhy or also I am going to try using twitter at NoviceSalazar

The Overwatch facility hadn’t been touched since it’d been destroyed 7 years ago, but that didn’t mean it was deserted.  Jack lay on his belly and used his visor to watch the security team pace around outside the rubble. Your average scavenger would be deterred just looking, but Jack Morrison was no average scavenger, and he needed to get past those men.  The destruction of the Swiss HQ had taken out data pads and computers that contained what he was  _ sure _ was important information about the downfall of Overwatch.  However, Jack was sure that the servers underground had survived, sure enough that he had to get in and check.

The building had been leveled, so badly that Jack knew there were still bodies in there that had never been recovered.  It was no wonder that everyone had accepted his and Gabe’s deaths, seeing this mess. Jack hadn’t been back since he’d stumbled from the rubble, face covered in blood, bones broken, barely able to walk.  He hadn’t wanted to come back, this had been the base where everything had fallen apart.

Jack cleared his throat, crawling forward and pressing a button on the earpiece of his visor, and little indicators popped up and the image zoomed in.  Helix Security. He wasn’t unknown to them after Grand Mesa. Jack didn’t want to kill any of them, and tried to figure out what to do to get into the rubble without running into any of them.  He ultimately decided it wasn’t possible, but he could do it by just knocking out the guy by the front gate.

Okay, no point just laying here once he had a plan.  Ana loved to complain that he ran in too fast, but she was a sniper, he thought she always wanted to wait too long.  Jack dimmed the lights on his visor and grabbed his gun off his back before sprinting towards the Helix guard at the front gate.  If there was one thing Jack had learned from his decades in the military, and a para-military organization, it was that even the best of soldiers would get bored eventually.  The Helix guard noticed him only a second before the butt of Jack’s gun was cracking him right in the forehead.

The guy dropped like a ton of bricks, flopping down over the ground with his arms and legs splayed out.  Jack looked around to make sure none of the other guards had come around then grabbed the guy and hauled him towards a pile of rubble, tucking him up in the shadows.  Hopefully by the time he was noticed, Jack would be long gone. During rescue efforts after the explosion, much of the rubble at the front entrance had been pulled away, enough that Jack could crawl on his belly into what had once been a hallway.

Even in the shadows of destruction he could picture how things had looked back in the day.  Jack could vividly remember the very first day they’d stepped foot in the Swiss HQ, how technologically advanced it was, how clean.  It had become a sort of home for them very quickly, it had every amenity they could possibly want, and all the people they loved were in one place.  Jack huffed as he shoved through an extra tight squeeze, but when he got through he was able to sit up on his knees and look around.

This hall was where all the employee photos had been, but the fires that had roared through had disintegrated them.  There were faces that had been on that wall that Jack could no longer remember. He got back down on his belly and squeezed through another fallen beam, making his way for the nearby elevator shaft.  The stairs were impassible, he remembered that.

By the time he made it he was sweating heavily under his mask but knew if he took it off he’d be completely blind in the darkness.  Jack sat down against a pile of rubble braced himself against it as he slowly opened the busted doors with his leg, grunting and straining as they fought him the entire time.

_ “Where do you think you’re going, Commander?” _

_ Jack presses the elevator button, “I think I’ve earned five minutes to sit in my room, Captain Amari.” _

_ Ana laughs, slapping him loudly on the back, “Hmm, then I suppose what I want can wait.  Should I tell Commander Reyes that you’re not in a meeting for once?” _

_ “Ana!” _

Jack wheezed as he doors finally screamed open, letting him crawl towards the shaft and stare down into the darkness.  Even his visor couldn’t penetrate it all, though it tried. He was getting too old for this. He groaned and lowered himself into the shaft, slowly climbing down, down down.  Many doors were blocked, or he was too precarious a position to get them open, but the further down he got the less the damage. Jack’s arms were shaking when he finally managed to shove open the doors and crawl out onto the floor.  He ripped off the bottom half of the mask, needing fresh air.

Not terribly fresh down here, more stale and smokey, but it was better than the air in his mask.  Jack sat up, back against the wall as he stared up and down the hallway, trying to figure out where he was.

_ Jack’s sneakers squeak on the tile floor, he’s not in his uniform, just a compression shirt and a pair of sweats.  Gabriel walks beside him in a tank top and shorts. Their hair sticks to their forehead from a hard day of training, heads close together as they talk quietly.  They pass right by the elevator, heading for the showers instead. Jack looks this way and that before he follows Gabriel inside, shutting the door behind him and locking it with a click. _

The training floor.  Right. Jack rubbed his temple, as if he could chase away the memories that threatened to overtake him.  He could remember how it felt, the sweat stinging his eyes, the way Gabriel’s arms had wrapped around him as he’d been pinned against the mat.  The softness of his lips and the scrape of his beard.

Fuck.  This was why he hadn’t wanted to come back here.

The lower levels were deserted, he figured people had been either evacuated, or the bodies removed.  It was in pretty good shape. Jack stood up, then whirled around as he thought he saw something from the corner of his eye, but his visor hadn’t targeted anything so... being in the Swiss HQ was just getting to him.  The only thing he was seeing in these hallways were ghosts. Jack placed the mask back on and started to walk, rifle held in his hands as he found the stairwell and started to walk further down.

Ghosts were even lurking here.  Jack could hear the sounds of laughter echoing, his laughter.  Had he laughed a lot, once upon a time? Then he heard Gabriel’s raspy laughter, Ana’s cackle.  They swirled around him, he saw them running up the stairs two, three at a time, racing each other with Jack in the lead and Gabriel close on his heels, one hand gripping the back of Jack’s shirt so he couldn’t get too far ahead.

Jack shut his eyes tightly, willing these hallucinations to go away.  When he opened them again the stairs were silent but for his muffled breathing.  Briefly it sounded like wind was rushing down the stairs but when Jack looked up he saw nothing.  He took a deep breath and started back down the stairs, rushing now. He ran past doors and each time got a brief hint of a conversation, of voices long gone, of people long dead.  Jack Morrison had died when this base had collapsed and he still haunts these halls.

Down, down, down.  The Swiss HQ was so much larger than most people knew, and only two men had had access to every level.  Jack Morrison and Gabriel Reyes. He finally came to a stop when the stairs did, gasping for breath, feeling like he’d been running from something the entire time.  Jack ripped off the mask and visor, plunging himself into total darkness. He fumbled around in his pants and pulled out a flashlight, clicking it on and shining it at the massive, thick door that stood before him.  Would this even still work? Or would he be forced to turn tail and leave with nothing?

Jack approached the control panel, bringing up his hand and biting the tip of his glove to yank it off.  He tucked the glove into his pocket then placed his palm, fingers spread, over the black glass of the panel.  There was a pause, long enough that Jack wondered if even the backup power had gone after all these years. Yet just before he gave up the panel lit up and a blue light scanned over his palm.

The motions came back to him like he’d never left, Jack leaned in, eyes wide as the retina scan ran over his eyes.  A little lighter than the last time he’d done this. It still beeped and a garbled voice said, “Welgecam Srek-Cmminder Jeck Murrisen.”

_ “Welcome, Strike-Commander Jack Morrison and Commander Gabriel Reyes.” _

_ Gabriel nods curtly.  Jack has his hands curled into stiff fists at his side.  They are pointedly not looking at each other. _

_ “Cut video feed to the server room,” says Jack through grit teeth. _

_ “As you wish, Strike-Commander Morrison,” said the emotionless female voice of their computer. _

_ Gabriel and Jack share a look before stepping into the server room, the door hissing shut behind them. _

Jack watched the door hiss open, putting his mask back on and slipping his glove on as he walked through the door.  He turned off the flashlight and tucked it back into his pocket. The server room was cavernous, a few machines lay on their back, still cracked from the massive fight he and Gabriel had gotten into down here.  It was the only place on the base where they could get some privacy, only the techs were allowed down here, and only under specific circumstances.

So they’d had a blow-out fist fight, screaming at each other about all the ways Overwatch was falling down around them.  Jack rolled his shoulders as he stared at one of the servers, he could still remember how it felt to be slammed into it, to have Gabriel on him, fists flailing as they’d screamed and...and cried.  Jack remembered crying, though he’d yelled through the tears.

It hadn’t been their final fight, but it had been one of the last.

Jack walked further into the room, stopping by another panel and pressing on the screen, which flickered slowly to life.  He had data pad in his back pocket which he pulled out and stuck directly to the flickering screen. There was a beep, a whir, and then the data pad began to extract data.

It would be more data than he could possibly need, but he couldn’t sort through it here.  Even if he could he wouldn’t want to. The ghosts here... they were too loud. Jack shut his eyes tightly, hand resting on the cool cement surrounding the panel, the screams wouldn’t stop, all the things they’d said that could never be taken back.  You always had another day together until you didn’t.

Something cold and hard pressed up against the back of his head and Jack’s eyes snapped open, body completely still.  The screams faded, until he could hear Reaper’s quiet breathing just behind him. Jack wondered if Reaper could also hear the ghosts in this place..

“Jack,” Reaper hissed, “what are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” said Jack quietly, fingers resting by the data pad, ready to rip it off at a moments notice.

“I followed you.”

“Must have been following me for awhile to know I was here,” Jack couldn’t move his head without feeling the shotgun against his skull, a constant reminder that Reaper could take his head clean off in a second.

“Oh Jack,” Reaper breathed, shotgun sliding like a lover’s caress down his neck and then pressing between his shoulders, “I’m always keeping an eye on you.”

“What do you want, Gabriel?” Jack asked.

_ “What the fuck do you want from me, Gabriel!  You’re killing me! Everything you and Blackwatch are doing, how many more excuses could I possibly make for you?!” _

“Oh, the usual,” said Reaper coldly, “to kill you, to take everything from you.”

“I think you’ve already done that,” said Jack gruffly, fingers curling slowly around the data pad, “look at us, Gabe... what really made it out of this wreckage?  Don’t you hear them?”

“Hear what, old man? You going senile?”

Jack moved fast for his age, ripping the data pad free and whirling around to slam his boot into Reaper’s chest with an ominous crack.  Reaper flew backwards into a server, crashing to the floor with it in a burst of electricity and smoke. Jack made a run for the stairs, shoving the data pad into his pants and pulling his rifle off his back.  He heard a snarl before he was bodily tackled to the floor, head cracking against the cement.

Reaper could have pulled out his guns, Jack could have grabbed the pistol off his hip, but instead they fought like they were young again, fists flying.  Jack punched Reaper in the mask so hard that he heard something crack, arching his hips and shoving to send him lurching off his hips. Jack couldn’t even get to his feet before one clawed glove was wrapped around his calf and yanking him across the cement to get an elbow that would have probably broken his jaw if he hadn’t had his own mask on.

Jack remembered this fight, he remembered tasting blood and smelling ozone from the destroyed server tower.  He remembered the acid in his throat. He remembered Gabriel’s look of hatred as he wiped the blood off his lips with the back of his hand.  Jack grabbed Reaper by the wrist and surged forward, flipping them and pinning Reaper against the floor, wrists crossed above his head.

For a moment they were still, breath wheezing out around their masks.

_ “Do whatever the fuck you want, Morrison.  This place will burn to the ground with you in it.” _

“Gabriel,” Jack whispered, staring down into Reaper’s mask, willing himself to see past the darkness, to see his friend, his lover again, “how much longer do we have to do this dance?”

“Until you die, Jack,” Reaper spat, and despite the fact that he could wraith away at any time, he remained pinned below him.

“Jack already died,” he snapped, “We both fucking died in this building!  Don’t you hear them? The ghosts that haunt this place? Going through the motions over and over again?”

Reaper sucked in a small breath, “You’re fucking crazy.”

“Maybe,” Jack stared into the dark holes of Reaper’s mask, unable to see anything past them even with his visor.  “Jack Morrison may haunt these halls, but Soldier 76 will not. You lost your chance today, Reaper.”

“What-”  Jack whipped out the pistol on his hip but didn’t fire, instead slamming the butt down as hard as he could on Reaper’s forehead.  The mask cracked down the center and the butt cracked right against his skull. Jack stood up, breathing heavily as he holstered his pistol, staring down into Gabriel’s face for the first time since the last time.  For all the decay, the sores healing and opening, it was still Gabriel’s face.

Jack should kill him, he should put a bullet in his brain and this once and for all in the place where Gabriel Reyes still lived.  It would be fitting... but he couldn’t do it. Jack picked his rifle up off the floor and ran for the stairs, he had to be long gone before Reaper woke up.

\----------

Reaper came to slowly, it had been a long, long time since anyone had gotten the upper hand on him.  Go figure it would be Jack. He could have killed him without him even knowing who had pulled the trigger, but that had seemed so hollow.  Every moment that Jack had been open, Reaper had let him go.

He pushed himself up, he could see perfectly in the pitch blackness, and noticed his mask laying cracked in two on the floor.  It meant Jack had seen him.

_ “Pathetic.” _

Reaper shot to his feet, shotguns out and ready, “Who’s there?”

_ “You’re pathetic, Morrison.” _

_ Jack spits blood onto the floor, sitting down heavily on a destroyed server, “Fuck you, Reyes... just... fuck you.” _

_ Reyes stares then walks over to sit next to Jack, rests his head on his shoulder, “Where did it all go wrong?” _

_ Jack sighs, letting his head rest against Gabriel, his hand slides over so their fingers tangle together, “I don’t know.” _

Reaper doesn’t remember this, he remembers storming out of the room and leaving Jack bleeding on the floor.  He drops his shotguns and swears the ghosts look at him, eyes glinting knowingly.

He runs.  He wraiths up the stairs as fast as he can, rushing out from between the fallen stones.  Reaper doesn’t care where Jack has gone for once, he wasn’t sure he could face those blue eyes right now, not when he can still see the bright blue eyes of Jack Morrison staring at him accusingly as if to say:  _ things could have been different if you’d stayed _ .

Some ghosts are best left to haunt the halls they called home.  



End file.
